Even if COVID seems to have towered over our summer, it doesn’t mean it’s completely stolen it away. It’s just made it a little different than usual. As parents, we understand how challenging it’s been to have our lives turned completely upside down; especially when trying to handle work and childcare at the same time. To help you get the most out of this summer, we came up with a bunch of COVID staycation ideas you can try with your family. They’ve been specially thought out to suit your work and life balance, as well as being as fun as creative for your kids.
Let’s begin!
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Story Cubes
Story Cubes are one of the simplest activities you can do during a coronavirus staycation, but will keep your kids entertained for hours. On three different cubes, draw different animals, colors, seasons, places or people on each of the sides. You can craft the cubes yourself with paper or cardboard with help from templates online. When you’re finished, toss them and see which image the cubes show at the top. Before bedtime, use the cubes to make up a bedtime story with whichever characters the cubes are showing.
It’s a lovely way to have some quality family time before waving goodbye to another warm summer day! Kids love making up the stories themselves so they might end up reading you a bedtime story.
Artist Fridays
Reserve Fridays for colors, creativity, and art. At the beginning of the week, give your kids the task of coming up with a performance, show, or presentation for Friday night. During the week, assign some hours for them to prepare and practice whatever secret show they’ll surprise you with. Not only will this give you some alone time during the day (as long as the rule of thumb is to keep it down), but it’s a great way to get their imagination and creative juices flowing. Whether it’s a song, theater piece, dance choreography, or an art gallery, it will always be a great memory to have.
Exercise Routines
Kids have lots of energy, and recharge pretty quickly. If you’re limited to staying at home this summer, take advantage of the good summer weather and keep your kids busy with lots of exercise. Schedule 30 minutes of high-intensity exercise every two hours to keep their energy levels in check.
We recommend an intense Tabata workout, jumping on the trampoline, jumping rope, running an obstacle course, or simply burpees. There’s no need to go all out. These exercises give kids something to look forward to during the day, and it might even make you want to join in with them! If they need a little more encouragement, we suggest making a “progress” checkerboard. For every session, they complete, add a new sticker to the board. At the end of the week, reward them with a special treat for doing such a good job.
Take in the outdoors
During the summer, there’s no doubt that one of the best covid staycation ideas has to be taking a day to enjoy the sun. Take a big picnic basket and fill it good snacks and drinks. Also bring outdoor games like twister or sports gear like a football, and enjoy a couple of hours outside. It never hurts to find a spot with water like a pool or a lake as well!
Discovery Walks
Much of the time, we’re so used to walking around the same neighbourhoods we tend to not even notice anything new about them or take an interest in paying attention to our surroundings. One of the many covid staycation ideas you can try are discovery walks. The aim is easy, yet exciting enough for kids.
Make it a goal to go on daily walks every day, and pick out 3 new things you hadn’t noticed before. You can pick anything at all to discover; it can be forms of street art, dogs walking around the neighborhood, different flowers, or street names. If you run out of ideas, make sure you ask your kids – they somehow always come up with something. At the end of the week, see how many new things you noticed!
Street Art
Many cities around the world are blessed with wonderful street art from many talented artists. Among the best covid staycation ideas there are this summer is to visit close-by street art sites. It’s a great way to stay safe, and get some time away from home. Seeing colorful, vibrant walls other than the ones at home is really helpful to ease your mind as a parent, and treat your kids to seeing something different and bright for a change. Better yet, it’s a good opportunity to discover some new, artistic sides to your city you perhaps had never seen before.
Camping
When has camping ever been a bad idea? For this summer, in fact, it turns out to be one of the best covid staycation ideas to do. If you live somewhere with lower travel restrictions, you may be able to escape a couple of days to an amazing campsite in the mountains, beach or forest. Lucky you!
If you’re unable to go very far, there’s nothing to worry about. Revisit your childhood memories and transform your living room into a giant camping fort. Grab bedsheets, cushions, and fairy lights, and spend a night in your own DIY campsite.
Photoshoot
No child is afraid of the camera. Decide on a day of the week as a themed “fancy-dress day”. Let your kids get creative with whatever they have at home to make a costume from scratch, and make them pose in front of the camera for a fun shoot!
The beauty of staycations is that there’s absolutely no need to go all out. But if you want, you can invest in some glitter, body paint, second-hand clothes or costumes to make things a little bit more fun! After doing it for several weeks, you’ll be left with an amazing “Coronavirus staycation” photo album to keep forever.
Room Redecoration Project
The sound of a redecorated or renovated room is almost like music to a kid’s ears. It gives them an opportunity to go wild in their own ways to express themselves, their personalities and display them in their little corner of the world.
Help them rearrange their furniture, make some drawings or crafts to hang on the wall, or even go as far as painting the walls for a bit of an exciting project. Don’t be afraid to let them take charge! This is one of the best COVID staycation ideas because it is more entertaining for them than you might think, and the end result is likely to make them very happy.
Over the top breakfasts
To make weekends stand out more than the rest of the days of the week, why not go crazy in the kitchen? One of our favourite covid staycation ideas is to experiment with making over-the-top breakfasts on Saturday mornings. Whether it’s eccentric milkshakes, rainbow pancakes, or omelettes made out of all kinds of delicious combinations, you can be sure it’s going to put the family in a good mood from the day they wake up.
Feel free to extend it to over-the-top lunches and dinners! Cooking together is a great, fun way to spend time together as a family that could never disappoint.
Replicate Your Dream Vacation
Did you have plans to go abroad this summer? It’s okay, there’s always a way to make up for them. For the time being, you can replicate your dream vacation by getting as close to the real experience as possible.if you had plans to go to France for example, set your family a challenge to learn a few words in French, and look up some French food to cook for dinner. If you were looking forward to travel to Mexico for a beachy trip, play some good Mexican music, eat some Mexican food, and head to the beach for some sand, sun, and fun.
Attend a weekly online cooking class
Coronavirus staycations are fun, but they’re also a great time to learn something new as a family. Once a week, try to engage the family by attending an online cooking class. Every week, a different family member gets a turn to choose!
There are several good websites or Youtube channels you can take a look at for this. For example, channels like Bon Appetit or Buzzfeed Tasty always give great ideas for easy, kid-friendly recipes you can try with everybody.
That’s the end of our top COVID staycation ideas list! We hope you and your family have a great summer under the sun. Let us know how you’ve been keeping yourselves busy and about any more ideas we should add to the list. In times like these, it’s important to help each other out with tips and advice!
